Restaurant and food preparation industries require a large volume of produce to be processed such as by slicing so that the sliced produce can be used in food preparation and assembly. In addition to rapid slicing of produce, food preparation requires consistently sliced produce such that the food prepared with that produce is consistent in appearance, taste, texture, portion size, and cooking qualities between servings prepared.
Produce slicing is typically a manually performed task due to the aforementioned desire for consistency. As slicing necessarily requires some form of blade or cutting surface, this naturally involves a desire to seek solutions to improve safety for food preparation workers and maintain optimal operating conditions. Currently available slicing solutions have exposed blade sets that are elongated between opposite frame ends. As such, the exposed blade sets can present a risk to users during set up. Also, the elongated blades suffer from deflection during slicing. This can cause inconsistent slicing and/or damage to the blades.